Lies Under Ice

I rather enjoyed this one. It's an interesting setting, you have a lot to do, and the various directions the story can go are intriguing. It's held back by some really unfortunately poor tracking of variables that led to a confusing climax and ending. For example, there was a character who I sent back to Earth who randomly showed up in a later scene. The epilogue was a mess. There were 3 or 4 different ways that a VERY SPOILER thing could have gone, call them A, B, C, D. I managed to negotiate a way towards A, but in the epilogue the first page said B happened, then the next page of the epilogue contradicted the previous and said C happened. Similar stuff went on across the board in the epilogue, like some characters who I'd gotten along with and supported all game were said to have moved to Io because I had spurned them. It all made for a rather disappointing ending, since it didn't reflect how any of the events had actually played out. Maybe with some bug fixes it'll be a terrific release. Despite the problems, it really was good. More engaging than a bunch of recent CoG releases.

Really cool concept, but the choices seem irrelevant to the colony's development. A simple, non-spoiler example of this is that prioritizing which modules to build is something that comes up often, but doesn't seem to change what actually gets built. Admittedly, I could be wrong about that, but there is a bigger problem: the ending is just a complete mess. I won't spoil what happens except to say there is a massive disconnect between the situation at the end of the story and the start of the epilogue.

49/51 on this one. Ending and events are odd. Story loses track of itself.

Какая же это шляпа. Я прям адски разочаровалась, так ждала выхода нового текстового квеста от Chpice of Games а там такое. Последнее время, к слову, у них что ни новинка, то фигня. Хорошие авторы закончились? Или на них дедлайны давят, мол пишите быстрее? Не знаю, но это плохая тенденция. Продолжаю покупать исключительно из-за любви к самой концепции текстовых квестов (ну и чтобы поддержать разрабов, все-таки не самый популярный фрмат игр). Касательно самой истории - здесь плохо все. Автор намешал кучу сюжетных линий, ни одна из которых не раскрывается нормально. Персонажи странные, неприятные. Любовь тут такая, что лучше б ее вообще не было.

The premise is great, it's just unfinished and buggy. The moment the world-building seems to go somewhere, it drops right off the cliff. Story looks like a good roadmap for a 3D game.

It has cats. All romance options suck, however. I also wish I could outlaw cultists in my colony.

Cool story! This one made me go back and play the author's other title, Trials of the Thief-Taker. Just surface level, but I think this story does a better job with world building and that sort of thing, whereas the other title maybe did a little better regarding character interaction. I love the idea of setting up a distant moon base, the struggles that come with that, and the surprises you find there. Almost feels like Frostpunk in a way, given the conditions on the ground there. Some interesting characters, at least one with a very unique backstory. The time span of the story due to the nature of space travel times and so on, necessitates a number of time skips. This allows you to see the development of the moon, as well as distant events back home, which is awesome. What seems to suffer just a bit, maybe, is the character interactions over this span of time. There are great moments with various characters, it's just that they are often months or years apart (which happens very often in any game/story I see with big time skips). Sometimes you're made aware of what others have been up to in the intervening period, but other times it is not so obvious (or perhaps left up to reader's imagination). I guess it would be a difficult balancing act, to be fair. [spoiler] Sometimes I felt like I knew more about Virginia and Lucky's relationship than my own haha but that's okay [/spoiler] Also, the epilogue seemed a little more detailed than with Trials, so that's nice. Enjoyed it!

Nice interesting story. Realistic colonization with a bit of extraordinary life to make it more interesting.than lifeless Mars or Moon.

The game does feel authentic in putting you in the position of managing a colony, especially on the back of managing factions, as there are plenty. Story is pretty solid, though I feel there is somethings that can be improved in the epilogue, to give perhaps a flavor to what factions won out and which did not. I enjoyed the personality implied of the characters, and how it did not take away from the backdrop. SPOILER WARNING: I will also say, though, that the ending felt a bit...malign, in application. Perhaps it was due to the idea of needing some grandiose conflict to round out the story, but I wonder if maybe it could've sufficed with the what was present at the start? I will give it another run through to see if the ending and the chapters change a bit more based on certain decisions. But overall, I laud this story.